he takes the broken. and makes them whole...

We just got home from a couples care group meeting.
Without fail I leave these times
challenged, encouraged and thankful
for God's grace and the Body of Christ.

It was a time of sharing
where we are in our marriages...
struggles, hopes, prayers,
evidences of God's grace, as well as
confessing sinful patterns and
areas where we are not walking in truth.

More than anything
I leave these times reminded
it is GOD who is at work
in each of us...
broken, sinful, weak, prideful,
undeserving, though we are...
he is patiently and steadfastly
conforming us to the image of Jesus...
perfectly mindful of our frame
that we are but dust...
and though we tend to grow
fainthearted and discouraged...
he never grows weary,
he never slumbers nor sleeps.

Travis, our care group leader,
closed our time by exhorting us to remember...

while we were dead in our trespasses
God, by his great mercy, made us alive
together with Christ... (Colossians 2:13)

we have been called,
beloved in God the Father,
and kept for Jesus Christ... (Jude 1b)

it is by grace we have been saved,
through faith given to us by God
not by our works... (Ephesians 2:8)

I am truly only able to love
my husband...my children...anyone...
because my God first loved me!